On its surface, the gag anime RobiHachi [ロビハチ] directed by Shinji Takamatsu is filled with contemporary and pop cultural references. But the story and characters are inspired from a book series titled Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige written by Jippensha Ikku and published during the late Edo Period.

I found a terrific video of a live kabuki performance of Kanjinchō 勧進帳 (The Subscription List), which is a favorite of yours truly. The play is listed among the 18 Famous Kabuki Plays (歌舞伎十八番) in the kabuki repertoire and still hugely popular to this day. The leading character is a fierce warrior named Benkei, regarded an exemplar… Read more

That breezy little greeting still gives me pause. During the fleeting seconds after hearing it, my mind races to come up with an answer. So why do I struggle over this simple conversation starter? The answer reveals much about the difference between American and Japanese communications.

Credit: sabakuINK CC BY-SA 4.0 Source: C.V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley Episode 12 (13AUG) of Blood and Tears includes a map detailing troop movements during the Battle of Ueno. This graphic started with a woodblock print of Edo published in 1858—part of the Japanese Historical Map Collection housed at the… Read more

(Originally published in my blog, The Sporkball Journals, on July 20, 2008.) There is no small irony in the fact I now live just a 2-hour drive away from where my Grandparents, Father and Aunts were once imprisoned. On the other hand, you could call it a kind of fate

This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of “The Voice“, the official newsletter of the National Association of Sports P.A. Announcers (NASPAA). Photo credits: (left) Jonathan Okanes, (right) University of Washington Recreation. Female Sports P.A. Announcers: A Rare Breed By Anita Y. Tsuchiya, CPAA Salt Lake Community College and University of Utah, Salt Lake… Read more

I have reached a few professional milestones: creating of a PA Announcer landing page, Becoming a Certified Public Address Announcer (CPAA), and announcing a women’s basketball game at the University of Utah on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.